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The Stewardship Project by Dennis R. Schrader
Dennis R. Schrader addressing an audience from a podium

The Stewardship Project · by Dennis R. Schrader

Resilience. Culture. Teamwork. Responsibility. The disciplines of good stewardship.

A weekly invitation to step back and reflect — on the ideas and institutions that endure, seen through the lens of history. Essays, commentary, and insights worth sharing, from Dennis R. Schrader, a leader who has helped organizations prepare for, withstand, and recover from crisis at every level. A place to think, not to argue.

Essays, articles & papers

Essay

Act Now or Pay Later: The Looming Social Security Crisis and America's Debt Reckoning

Congress is playing a dangerous game of chicken with Social Security, and the clock is ticking. In less than a decade, the program's trust fund is set to reach insolvency, triggering automatic benefit cuts for millions of Americans by 2033…

In the News

Dennis Schrader, Power List Profile

The Daily Record: A career profile of Schrader’s leadership across Maryland health and homeland security.

In the News

Analysis: Why Dennis Schrader Sailed Through His Senate Confirmation

Maryland Matters: On his 45–2 confirmation as Maryland Secretary of Health.

In the News

Hogan again appoints Dennis Schrader as state health secretary

The Baltimore Sun: Coverage of his appointment to lead the Maryland Department of Health.

Article

Catastrophic Planning vs. Conventional Disaster Planning

Examines the decade-long debate over improving catastrophic planning across all levels of government. State and local jurisdictions must plan for higher-probability non-catastrophic incidents, while the federal government is seen as the resource of last resort for low-probability catastrophic events, making the case for pre-incident catastrophic planning so all parties can respond and recover quickly when a major incident occupies the national stage.

Article

A Practical Approach to Achieving Resilience

Addresses the ongoing concern that the private sector neither understands nor accepts the concept of resilience, and asks whether it is a relevant strategy or simply the latest homeland-security fad. Argues that to be useful as a security outcome, resilience must become a defined, characterizable process.

Article

Lightweight Networks: Enabling the Homeland Security Enterprise

Since 9/11, attempts to adapt Department of Defense systems approaches to build the national Homeland Security Enterprise have not produced a cost-effective domestic enterprise. Proposes "lightweight networks" as an enabling alternative for regional collaboration and capability-building.

Article

National Preparedness Grants: Strategies for Investment Reductions

Security is generally viewed as a cost to be minimized, Americans want security but will pay only so much and resist intrusion on their freedoms. As the accelerated post-9/11 grant funding faces reductions, this article examines strategies for prioritizing national-preparedness investments.

Essay

Osama bin Laden - May 1, 2011

Late last night when I was writing this post, the news of Osama bin Laden came over the TV. I decided to wait until this morning to make this post. It is…

Essay

PPD-8:PKEMRA and 6 U.S. Code

Now that PPD-8 is established as Policy it is a good opportunity to go back and look at the law and what has been required for the past 5 years since…

Essay

PPD-8 and Post Katrina Act of 2006 (PKEMRA)

Now that the new Preparedness Policy Directive PPD-8 is in place, it would be useful to test what elements of the PPD-8 are codified in PKEMRA. The PPD…

Essay

FEMA Strategic Plan 2011-2014 and PPD-8

Last month I wrote about the compelling vision painted by FEMA's Administrator. I was wondering how the vision would be implemented to sustain this bold…

See all 52 published works →

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